just another week in ak...

like tossing in pictures from southeast alaska from time to time so above is a swan at ward cove lake that kept me snapping pictures for some time. got some wonderful shots of this friendly bird. this was one of my favorites. below is one of many totem poles. i believe this one is in saxman.

have wanted to post pictures of the baby quilts i made for my great-neices/nephews coming into the world this year. the one below is for a baby boy, joshua who was just born a few weeks ago. sadly, i had the wrong address and it didn't make it there in time. i'm happy to report it did make it's way back to alaska and hopefully i can get it back in the mail here soon. it was a basic farm print, but i thought i was cute.

the one below is for my neice shannon. i loved the flowers. i'm a fan of daisy's and sun flowers. they are just happy flowers. she has a baby girl waiting to make her way into this crazy world. shannon and her husband live in texas.....i'm hoping to convince them to move to alaska. (i've had no luck convincing anyone in my family to move here and only a few have visited. oh well, i can keep trying)

the next two are for my neice, kelly. she lives in california and has twins coming...one of each. the first quilt has these adorable pigs and the second is very alaskan salmon theme. each quilt takes me an average of 2 hours to make. i'm no perfectionish, but i think it's fun to send out something handmade. lucky for me, babies aren't critics.

so back to me, alaska and my crabby hat! i bought it in dutch...cute, eh?

was trying to combine the fall leaves with a picture of my dutch harbor crab hat and my huge nose....apparently, my nose isn't quite as large as i thought. i have a fear of getting my great grandma harriets nose. it's super sized. i'll have to try and post her picture on here so i can take some sort of nose survey.

the past 3 days i was out at the dog park in between shifts. the fall colours are really spectacular there and all over anchorage this week. there was a big bull moose there on friday, but my pictures didn't come out. i was trying to deal with the two dogs and prevent annoying the bull. this guy was really huge and the last thing i wanted was a male moose coming at me. i guess he has charged a few at the park this past week. there was a female moose of interest,which makes him even less tolerant of others...better to skip the pictures, even though it's hard for me to put the camera down sometimes. rio is going sans brace and just taking the shorter walks. i think she's adjusting and i will too eventually. it's for the best. she doesn't seem too achy right now.

did get to meet up with tanya and her dog, indy, for a trip around n. bivouac. the colours were wonderful there as well and we made plans to start back the monday walks for the winter. i worked for a bit today and made little flyers to put out. guess we'll put some out at the prov acc, the reg acc and i'll put some in peds as well. avoided it last year as there is a certain nurse who annoys and will certainly come...but i am my mothers daughter and it just isn't like me to exclude anyone. so i'll put up the sign and take what comes. it was a fun thing last year. we got out in all temperatures and every week we had different people show up. anything that gets people outside in winter is good i think.

blossom enjoyed the university lake romps and swims. weather is changing and the temperature is dropping. there was termination dust on the mountain tops as i drove home from work this morning. that is the first snow that falls and settles on the mountains around us...a sure sign of winters fast arrival. luckily, i put my patio furniture up and started doing the tasks that get one prepared for another season change.

we've had a little rain, but loads of blue skies over the weekend. today was rain though so i slept much of the day before hitting the bog. my new license plates arrived, but i'll have to wait til tomorrow to put them on. i also need to pull out my studded tires and get ready to do the change over. there is also garden clean up projects to do and i'll put plastic up on some of the windows.

rio also enjoyed the fine weather and waded a bit. she is so spoiled at the park....she knows so many people and has inbedded those with treats in her memory bank. it cracks me up to watch her light up when she hears a familiar voice in the distance. for a blind dog she is totally confident and takes off towards her friends.

work was busy. i followed one of our new grad interns. she is on her own i guess and pretty frassled. that meant i had to pick up the pieces a bit. personally, i think new grads should do some time on one of the main floors to get organizational skills and basic nursing skills down before attempted the icu. when you have a critical patient it's no time to be freaking out over never having given an enema or hung blood or some such thing. the patient load was actually pretty basic icu though steady. i was definitely kept busy for the first 2 nights. the third night i was blessed with an on call night and was surprised when i woke at 8 am having slept much of the night. i'm a sound sleeper though and often worry that i'll sleep through those 3 am calls. last night i worked in peds and it was pretty breezey night.

my co-worker is too sweet to her 35 year old son and i fear i may be too blunt with her. it's those stories that really make me happy i have no kids. she works her buns off, he lives off her for the most part and just can't get his crap together. she enables him and i told her so. staff meeting this am kept me there late. they are starting bedside report. not that it will be all bad, but it's certainly not a panacea for all report giving. there are many social issues that one really can't just talk about in front of families...like last night, my one patients brother passed of the same thing a few years back that she still suffers with...that info needs to be passed but one certainly can't say that in the room in front of family every 12 hours. another kid we admitted the father was overly aggravated at his daughters crying and pretty nasty to staff. so i pointed out some of the silliness of doing the order check at the desk, then discussing social issues outside the room and then finally going in the room to do the report. i also have learned a great deal from those shift reports and i ask questions that are sometimes not the most comfortable things to ask, and i wouldn't want to ask them in front of family. things such as why is there nothing going through the cordis line, or why was the blood sugar only checked 2 times today when this patient is on an insulin drip and why when both of thos e sugar levels were out of the accepted range was nothing done about it...? i think you get the picture.

i was able to watch my net flix movie saturday night while i was on call. being paid $4/hr to watch a movie and sleep is really not so bad. i got paid $1/hr to watch 5 kids when i was a young teenager. anyway, watched a movie called, "the girl from paris". i liked it over all though it ended rather abruptly. last week i also was able to finally watch the movie "doubt". again good, but a bit disappointing in the end.

forgot to mention that there was a kid on the floor whose first name i could never even imagine attempting to say...it was 41 letters long. have no idea what the meaning of it is or anything...it just seems so nuts. people are just idiots sometimes. that poor kid.

woke this afternoon after having a funny and bizarre dream...i had a grudge match of tennis scheduled with my old boss and friend, sully from my days working at the vet. i was at some country club and i was dressed in a flowing green gown with huge platform shoes as i swept into the stadium. of course, as i arrived to the crowds i realized i'd forgotten my tennis racket and i called to the crowd for a borrowed one. one was given to me and we began to play. he was obviously kicking my butt, but the crowd seemed to really adore me!! strange dream,but i got a kick out of it. perhaps that is my moment in the sun...and it happended in a dream.